Tata Martino’s description of Atlanta United’s 4-1 loss to Orlando City in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals was fitting. PelÃcula de terror. A horror movie.
But every bit of it was real, down to the four goals Atlanta shipped in the first half against its chief rival.
Martino shouldered the blame for the result, one that saw him go with a backline of five defenders. Eliás Báez and Matt Edwards were positioned as the outside backs, their natural positions, with Stian Gregersen serving as one of the centerbacks. The wrinkle, though, was that Pedro Amador and Ronald Hernández were used as centerbacks.
It led to disastrous results for Atlanta.
“My responsibility,” Martino said through an interpreter after the match. “It’s all on me. No responsibility on the players.”
One after the other, the goals went in. In the fourth minute, David Brekalo made it 1-0 before Griffin Dorsey upped the lead to 2-0 at the quarter-hour mark. Tiago then added a pair in the 23rd minute and the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time to put the visitors down 4-0 at the break.
If not for some key saves from Jayden Hibbert, the result could have been worse, though the Atlanta keeper’s error led to the first of Tiago’s two goals on the evening.
“I understood that the team was about to evolve in their game. And the idea was to pair up with the five forwards that (Orlando) sometimes used,” Martino said. “We weren’t prepared for that, so it’s absolutely my responsibility,” Martino said.
Martino later added that the way Orlando played in the first 30 minutes of Saturday’s 1-1 draw — along with the opportunity to rotate his lineup — led him to play five at the back.
“I understood that we had to take advantage of the players we had with much fewer minutes than their players. Now, obviously, my reading was wrong. But now, clearly, my lesson was mistaken,” he said.
It will make for a sour trip back to Atlanta with one match remaining until the World Cup break: a trip to Columbus on Sunday to face the Crew, who fired Henrik Rydstrom after just 14 matches and appointed Laurent Courtois as interim head coach.
“We know we have one more match before the World Cup break. We know that likely we will be out of the playoff picture into the break, or close to it,” Martino said.
“We will have to work hard during the break, and then take on the second half with the right mentality, and do the best that we can to compete for a spot.”
Sometimes as a leader, you have to show your failures to get change to happen. I’m starting to wonder if he’s showing his cards about having a weak CB lineup and a weak set of forwards. He’s already rotated his midfield a few times showing what it is capable of but so far the forwards and CB’s haven’t. Since he has the ability to affect player movement, i’m starting to wonder if this is the game of chess he’s playing.
I think if believes the talent on his team is inadequate, he has total freedom to say so and doesn’t need to be passive-aggressive about it.
Yeah, if he’s playing games with the lineup to prove something, which I don’t think he is, fire him now.
Yikes, I don’t even know what to think anymore. Shrug emoji.
Next game should be winnable, but my money is on the opposition at this point.
If we were in the Premier League, that’s the kind of loss a coach gets fired for.
if we were in the premier league, we would have been demoted to the championship league last year, so the coach getting fired would be the least of our problems.
That’s fair.
True enough.
He’s had a lot of grace. I’m guessing if Deila got a year and Pineda got 3, he’s probably going to be here a while longer.
Yeah, I’m not predicting he gets sacked during the window at all. His pedigree will give him a lot of slack yet, especially in this league and with this team.
While I acknowledge Tata’s taking responsibility (and agree he got the tactics wrong), I disagree with his statement that the players weren’t responsible – they clearly were. Also have to disagree with the statements that we had a realistic chance to win the US Open Cup – we did not, we’re simply not good enough and would have lost in the next round anyway.
Well, to be honest, I thought the 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 could work; especially just by sheer numbers on the midfield. Obviously we don’t have the kind of players capable of executing this scheme. I think Tata is showing us and the FO how bad some players are; he is trying every player, different formations but the pieces don’t fit.
Yeah, you could see what he was trying, but Hernandez and Almador as CB’s should’ve given you pause on that plan. IMO. Definitely need new players. Can you imagine Almada and Giako again?
I think the formation and tactical approach had merit, but not with the players available or selected. This roster is still pretty bad. I think it was kind of hard to tell under Deila just how bad some areas were because there wasn’t an obvious approach or tactical identity. The team is more structured and organized and we can better see the glaring issues. The CB position is a disaster considering the resources allocated there. FB isn’t great, but it’s often a place MLS teams cut corners. AUFC could probably get by with what we have there if the rest of the roster was more sound. We at least have 5 semi-competent bodies.
CDM isn’t great. Reilly is not starting caliber, not even close, really. I don’t think Muyumba is that good, and he’s leaps and bounds ahead of Reilly. CM is the one grouping that is playing pretty well, but our highest paid CM (Alzate) seems to be the worst of the bunch. None of our DPs are really DP-worthy. Miranchuk kind of is, but we see how limited he is when he doesn’t have quality play around him. He’s not really capable of taking over a game on his own. Almada could do that at times, and Miggy could as well in his first stint here. ELL is a mess. Miggy does some things well, but it remains to be seen if we can maximize him and Miranchuk. We’d be better off if one (or both) were swapped out for more complimentary players. ELL isn’t anywhere close to a DP performer.
Tuesday was embarrassing to watch, but we probably weren’t really going to win USOC anyway. Maybe we get a result this weekend before the WC break. Then all we can do is hope for key changes in the summer window and a big step in the right direction to close out the season.
Very well put.
So far, Tata II has been an abject failure. He is so stubborn. Has never respected the US Open Cup (which is our only chance at a trophy this year.). Just awful by this club. Just awful.
So is Tata submitting his resignation?